1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a picture taking apparatus which permits a still picture and a moving picture which are different in picture quality to be recorded simultaneously on the same sensor and, more specifically, to a picture taking apparatus capable of displaying a remaining capacity of a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, still pictures are recorded by film-based cameras or still-video (SV) systems, and moving pictures are recorded by video cameras. Nowadays a wide variety of techniques are proposed for simultaneous recording of still and moving pictures. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-37835 discloses a camera which is compact in size and light in weight and adapted to simultaneously capture a moving picture on video tape and a still picture on silver-based film by the use of a single lens system.
In addition, an SV system has been developed whose mode of operation can be switched into either the moving picture mode or the still picture mode by an operator. For such a system for simultaneous recording of still and moving pictures, it is desired to alert the camera operator of the number of frames left for shooting or the remainder of the recordable time during recording.
In view of this respect, an electronic still camera is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-7647 which, in recording still and moving pictures and sound, indicates the remaining capacity of a recording medium according to a mode set. That is, this camera has a feature of displaying the remaining capacity of a recording medium for still picture when a still picture is recorded and the remaining capacity for moving picture when a moving picture shot is recorded.
Moreover, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-38785 discloses a camera which allows the operator to make sure of the used or unused capacity of a recording medium in terms of the number of frames for still pictures and in terms of time for moving picture.
However, the conventional techniques described above suppose that each of still and moving pictures will be shot individually. Thus, the display according to each of the still picture mode and the moving picture mode is merely performed. That is, these conventional techniques do not simultaneously provide information related to the two modes, as is desirable in a system which allows a still picture to be shot while a moving picture is being shot.
In addition, the conventional techniques suppose that still pictures are handled in the same quality as moving picture. However, the picture quality of the moving picture need not be as high as the still image. It is thus desirable to display how much of each of moving and still pictures can be shot with a remaining capacity of a recording medium of an SV system.